Scanning

A Scan is one run of your Ghost. It fetches new posts, reads them against your goal and turns the ones that fit into Finds. Every new Ghost has Auto scan turned on and scans every 1 day.

How often to scan

Daily scans suit most Ghosts. Scan more often only when the topic is time-sensitive and you want to reply within hours.

Scanning more often does not produce more Finds. Each scan reads the posts that are new since the last one, so a faster schedule brings you the same posts sooner. The exception is a query that matches far more posts than one scan reads. Narrow that query or add a filter.

How far back a scan looks

A Ghost’s first scan reads only the last 3 days of posts. It does not pull months of history.

Every later scan reads posts that are new since the Ghost’s last successful scan. If you scanned recently, a new scan may find nothing.

A Ghost that has not scanned for a while, for example after a long pause, also starts from the last 3 days. It does not go back to fill the gap.

Editing a Ghost does not re-check posts it has already scanned. A new goal, query or threshold applies to posts from the next scan on. To keep an older post your Ghost left out, turn it into a Find.

Change how often a Ghost scans

The next scan is scheduled from the last one, so the Next scan time moves when you change the frequency.

Facebook Ghosts scan at most once a day. A Facebook Ghost set to hours won’t save, so pick days.

Pause and resume

On the Ghost’s page, turn Auto scan off or on. On the Ghosts list, open a Ghost’s menu and choose Pause scanning or Resume scanning.

A paused Ghost keeps its settings and Finds, and picks up at the next scheduled scan when you resume it. Owners and Admins can pause and resume, and the company needs an active subscription.

Start a scan yourself

Open the Ghost, choose Scan now, then Start scan. You can also choose Start scan from a Ghost’s menu on the Ghosts list, or save settings with Save + scan. Owners, Admins and Members can start a scan.

While a scan runs, a progress bar shows how many posts have been processed. Choose Cancel scan to stop it.

One scan at a time

Your company runs one scan at a time. If another Ghost is scanning, a new scan waits as Queued and starts when the others finish. An automatic scan is Skipped if the same Ghost’s previous scan is still running.

Scan statuses

Status	Meaning
Scanning	The scan is running.
Queued	The scan will start after your company’s current scans finish.
Syncing	The Ghost is syncing with its external source, such as a CRM list, and will begin scanning shortly.
Succeeded	The scan finished. If it shows a warning, the scan finished but hit an error. Hover over it for details.
Partial	The scan stopped before checking everything. Finds found so far were saved.
Failed	The scan hit an error. Hover over it for details.
Cancelled	Someone cancelled the scan before it finished.
Skipped	The Ghost’s previous scan was still running.
Offline	This Ghost type was offline when the scan was due.

While a Ghost type is offline, its card shows a cloud icon and the scan button reads Ghost offline. Try again later.

How many Finds a scan keeps

Max Finds per scan, in the Ghost’s settings, caps how many Finds one scan can create. The default is 0, which means unlimited. The most you can set is 100.

When more posts qualify than the cap allows, your Ghost keeps the ones it is most confident about. The rest are excluded with the reason Max finds reached, and you can still turn any of them into a Find from Scanned items.

A cap gives you time to work each Find properly. It does not change which posts qualify. That is the Match threshold.

Scans need an active subscription

Ghosts scan only while your company has an active subscription or trial. If the subscription ends, scans stop until you choose a plan. See Subscription.